Help us make sure families around the country know about valuable state and federal tax credits.

Here’s a sad fact: Each year millions of American families forgo valuable income when they fail to claim tax credits for which they are eligible.

That means that millions of dollars of tax credits go unclaimed every year. Tax credits — including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit (CTC), and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) — provide an indispensable financial boost to vulnerable women and families struggling to make ends meet. But women and their families have to know about these tax benefits in order to claim them.

This is why we need your help to spread the word about tax credits. And this is why we are so delighted to debut our new and improved Tax Credits Outreach Resources. We’ve made it easier than ever for advocates to spread the word about these credits.

If you work or volunteer with families that are likely eligible for tax credits and/or in a program that supports children and families, you can help get the word out! Simply hanging fliers in classrooms, hallways, and offices, sending them home with young children, or talking about tax credits at parent meetings could make a difference for the families you work with. Be sure to let us know how you’re spreading the word about tax credits, or if there’s anything we can do to help, by emailing Amy Qualliotine at aqualliotine@nwlc.org.

If you saw the President’s press conference today, it’s become clear that the right-wing noise machine has chosen to start to launch smears against potential Obama administration nominees, before they’re even nominated. Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham are already smearing Ambassador Susan Rice, who might be a nominee for Secretary of State.

And now, the right is even raising old, debunked Swift Boat attacks against Senator John Kerry.

On his FOX News show, last night, Sean Hannity (who never served a day in his life) promised an “investigative” report into Senator Kerry, a decorated Veteran, who volunteered for the war in Vietnam. Let’s put an end to this now.

Retail workers at Walmart stores nationwide recently went on strike — for the first time in the megastore’s 50-year history.1

Unless Walmart takes immediate steps to improve basic working conditions, workers throughout the company’s vast operations — from factories and warehouses to retail stores — will participate in a massive walkout on Friday, November 23. “Black Friday” is traditionally the most important shopping day of the year for retailers, comprising upwards of 20-40% of their annual sales.2

Black workers comprise nearly 20% of Walmart’s workforce. By supporting Walmart workers in the fight for good jobs and a decent working environment, we can help raise the standard for the entire retail industry and show Walmart executives that there’s a price to pay for exploiting its workforce.

Walmart is the largest retailer in the world and claims to be the largest employer of Black workers in the United States.3With Black unemployment at 14.3%,4 many in our communities are increasingly reliant upon Walmart for employment — particularly where the retail giant has actively worked to price out smaller competitors.

Yet landing a job at Walmart is hardly a guarantee of a steady paycheck. More often, Walmart jobs serve to keep members of our community in poverty. Wages averaging $8.81/hour add up to just $15,576/year for a full-time employee.5 And even this level of remuneration is out of reach for many — Walmart routinely keeps workers from getting enough hours during the week, and arbitrarily switches up available hours to prevent workers from seeking supplemental employment elsewhere.6 It’s no accident that Walmart consistently has the largest number of employees who rely on public assistance.7

For over a year now, workers have been calling on Walmart to reform the company’s notoriously exploitative practices with regard to wages, scheduling, benefits and workplace safety. Walmart’s response has been ruthless. Workers brave enough to speak up have been slapped with retaliatory disciplinary actions including cutbacks on hours and even firings, while the company and Walton family continue rake in massive profits off the backs millions of low-wage workers.8

Privately-held Walmart has made the Waltons extraordinarily wealthy — this one family controls a fortune equal to the wealth of the bottom 42% of Americans combined.9 Yet the Waltons have refused to take even the most modest steps to address the yawning inequality driven by Walmart’s labor practices. Walmart could take action today to raise wages to $12/hour10 — substantially improving the lives of its lowest-paid hourly workers, 72% of whom are women11 — if there were political will to end the company’s culture of worker abuse.

What happens at Walmart has ramifications far beyond the walls of any of its stores. To date, Walmart has set the standard for driving down wages and maximizing profits. Instituting positive change at Walmart could effectively transform the retail industry and improve working conditions for millions of Americans.

Thanks to the women in this room and people all across the country, we worked really hard — and it’s now been more than three years since Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and I signed it into law. It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court upheld the law under the Constitution. And, by the way, six months ago, the American people went to the polls and decided to keep going in this direction. So the law is here to stay.

I’ll do everything in my power to make sure nothing like this happens again by holding the responsible parties accountable, by putting in place new checks and new safeguards, and going forward, by making sure that the law is applied as it should be — in a fair and impartial way.

They exemplified the very idea of citizenship — that with our God-given rights come responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and to others. They embodied that idea. That’s the way they died. That’s how we must remember them. And that’s how we must live.